Technical Field
The present invention relates to memory-based computing and, more particularly, to multifunction lookup table sharing in memory-based computing platforms.
Description of the Related Art
Memory-based computing is fast becoming a viable technology. With new memory technologies on the horizon, memory is becoming available that provides high densities at a very low cost, high reliability, low power consumption, and high manufacturing yields. In other words, memory technologies are advancing more quickly than corresponding logic technologies, such that it will become advantageous in many cases to simply store and look up the results of certain logic operations rather than to perform those operations each time they are needed.
However, in conventional memory-based computing, performing such operations in parallel needs multiple lookup tables, and each operation type needs a separate lookup table. For example, a conventional addition lookup table can be used only for the purpose of addition, because each value in the lookup table corresponds to a specific sum. This leads to inefficiencies, as many lookup tables are provided to meet peak capacity and may go unused in most use cases.